There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 26.
Gisela Roth led me to a place I’d already visited once before—The Nest.
We’d started from an entirely different location, yet here I stood before the same door adorned with a dragon sculpture.
The secret passage behind the fireplace was lit with only minimal illumination and branched into multiple corridors like a maze.
So I couldn’t get my bearings on which direction I was actually walking.
“You’ve been here before, right?”
“Yes, I came following Dupon Clancher yesterday.”
The couch caught my eye—the one that offered overwhelming comfort.
And the cozy carpet too, along with the Mana Stone Fireplace quietly burning.
When I’d first set foot in this space, I’d barely suppressed a constant stream of admiration, but now it held no appeal for me whatsoever.
I’d just remembered an eternal truth I’d briefly forgotten.
High-end furnishings and facilities at the workplace?
That’s a terrible sign.
It means the organization either has to keep its members in line with creature comforts, or the support level is so profitable that they burn through it without restraint.
“Is that couch really comfortable?”
“It seemed to be.”
“Sounds like you’ve already tested it.”
“Yes, just for a moment.”
Especially that one—it’s a devil’s couch.
The softness paired with unwavering support cradling the buttocks was positively diabolical, but that wasn’t even the problem.
This spacious, oversized couch was perfectly suited to serve as a bed.
Which suggested I might have no time to return to my quarters—that I’d be living and sleeping here instead.
“So you actually had time to plant your backside on it? That confirms the captain’s been keeping an eye on you?”
“Keeping an eye on me, sir? I’m not sure what you—”
“Sit. Let’s talk sitting down.”
I had no desire ever to touch that devil’s couch again, but Gisela Roth was gesturing from the opposite seat, so I had no choice but to sit in the same spot as before.
‘Damn it.’
It was comfortable.
I knew it was temptation from the devil, but the ease was undeniably, inescapably comfortable.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
Gisela Roth had propped both feet up on the low table in front of the couch and was slouching half-reclined against the backrest.
“You’ve probably heard the basics from the captain already, so ask if you’re curious about anything.”
My mouth nearly blurted out, ‘But how can I be curious if I don’t know anything?’ Yet I swallowed that comment down my throat.
Instead, I carefully raised my right hand and asked.
“You keep referring to someone called the captain—who is this person, exactly?”
“Our captain? Dupon Clancher.”
Gisela Roth spoke the name of the first executive as casually as mentioning a neighborhood acquaintance.
“So Dupon Clancher is… the captain, then.”
Does that man have ten bodies or something?
He was Killian Knox’s closest aide, the head of seven executives, the final authority overseeing Knox’s most critical operations—and now the actual captain of the intelligence division too.
Only then did Dupon Clancher’s familiar bearing here at The Nest make sense.
When I raised my hand again to ask a second question, Gisela Roth gave permission with a nod of her chin.
“And who are you, if I may ask?”
“Me?”
She pointed at herself with her index finger as if baffled, and I nodded in response.
“Since you brought me to The Nest, you appear to be one of the Ravens, but I only know your name. I know nothing else about you.”
“Ah, so you’re wondering why I left you that note summoning you—who I am and why I’m telling you what to do?”
“Well, something… like that.”
“Fair enough. You could be curious.”
Gisela Roth chuckled and pointed between me and herself in turn.
“You’re a Raven recruit. I’m your direct mentor.”
“Your… direct mentor…?”
I sprang up from the devil’s couch and bowed to Gisela Roth again.
“I apologize for my rudeness! I’m Lunelk Ains! I look forward to your guidance and instruction!”
“Huh?”
Gisela Roth laughed, twitching one leg on the table.
“Huh. I thought you’d come from the Combat Division and be completely hopeless, but maybe that’s not the case?”
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
From the moment we first met in front of the Warehouse until we arrived at The Nest, Gisela Roth had seemed utterly untroubled.
But internally, she’d already judged me as “completely hopeless.”
‘Damn.’
In any organization, falling out of favor with your direct supervisor makes life exhausting.
Especially for recruits, where distinctions of “right” and “wrong” become meaningless.
You’re the kind of person who gets cursed out just for breathing against the wall.
The only standard that matters is one: “Does the mentor look favorably on you?”
Just having to work in the intelligence division again was tiresome enough.
I didn’t want my supervisor to mark me as a target and make things even worse.
“I’ll be more careful going forward!”
“Well, I didn’t tell you I was your mentor, so that’s on me. Besides, the Ravens tend to be pretty relaxed with each other anyway.”
Gisela Roth shrugged as if she didn’t care at all.
But I wasn’t fooled.
When she spoke this way, there was always a true intention lurking behind it.
“But I do like maintaining discipline.”
See? There it is.
Still, I could understand what she meant by “maintaining discipline.”
A recruit must be taught with strictness.
That’s how they develop their shine.
That’s how they learn faster and become actually useful.
“Yes, I can imagine that about you.”
“…Ha.”
Gisela Roth’s mouth twisted to one side as she let out a hollow laugh.
She seemed displeased.
Why?
She said she liked maintaining discipline, so I simply played along—what was wrong with that?
“Did I make some kind of mistake?”
“No, no. I was just thinking this will be entertaining.”
“I hope so as well.”
Whatever the reason, agreeing with your mentor’s words was always safest for your own well-being.
“Right. Then sit back down for now.”
“No, standing is more comfor—”
“My neck hurts from looking up at you.”
“I’m sitting!”
“To think I have to spell out every little thing like this. I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
As I planted my backside on the devil’s couch once more, she clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
“So I guess you’re done with questions.”
Who the captain is, and who you are.
I’d only asked two things.
“Now I’m going to tell you what you need to do as a Raven recruit. First: the moment your Combat Division shift ends, return immediately to The Nest. If they catch you slipping away elsewhere, you’re dead, understood?”
She shoved her fist forward for emphasis, but what terrified me far more was a different realization hitting me just then.
“So I still have to… continue with the Combat Division duties?”
“Of course. To maintain your cover identity, you have to keep doing that work. If you’re not the Lunelk Ains of the Combat Division, what exactly are you?”
Gisela Roth’s expression darkened as she growled.
“You planning to tell people you work for Knox when they ask what you do?”
“That’s… that’s not it at all.”
I hurriedly dragged my palms across my face.
Otherwise, I felt like I might start spewing profanities right in front of my supervisor.
‘Right. It’s called a cover identity.’
The weight of that phrase Dupon had casually mentioned was crushing.
‘So I have to clock in twice?’
And it wasn’t just the clocking in.
I’d have to do the work of both the Combat Division and the Ravens.
That peaceful, leisurely life in Knox was truly over.
All because of Killian Knox, that reptilian bastard.
Gisela Roth watched me continuously wash my face dry, then spoke.
“Recruit.”
“Yes?”
“You’re really entertaining.”
Her eyes gleamed with something sharp.
The silver light reflected in those bright brown eyes was chilling.
“Lunelk Ains, you in particular—”
Gisela Roth slowly lowered her legs from the table and leaned toward me.
“Do you hate working as a Raven?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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